1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an enclosure for housing an automatic teller machine or other component requiring a high degree of security against unauthorized entry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) necessarily store large amounts of cash and are installed in locations which make them readily accessible to customers. Such ease of access coupled with physical locations in shopping malls, building lobbies and the like which may have minimal foot traffic at night and on weekends can make such machines an easy target for the theft of their contents unless good security measures are undertaken. Another requirement of an ATM is that its contents be readily accessible to authorized personnel who must on a regular basis replenish the supply of cash and service electronic and mechanical equipment within the ATM. Thus, the security measures taken must allow easy access to authorized personnel.
Various approaches have been taken to meet these challenges. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,445, a secure enclosure for housing an ATM is provided in which a section expands from a closed position to an expanded position when access into the enclosure is needed for servicing. The purpose of such construction is to provide an ATM machine which can be installed in a relatively small space and yet provide an enclosed secure maintenance area when needed, but which does not take up space when not needed. Other techniques for providing access to the contents of an ATM to authorized personnel while maintaining some level of security are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
4,911,087 Self Banking Kiosk 5,299,511 Bellcrank Assembly for Moving an ATM Module 4,577,562 Teller Machine Enclosure 5,036,779 Automatic Teller Machine Enclosure 5,379,704 Service Access System for Automatic Teller Kiosk 4,681,044 Access Door System 4,557,352 Apparatus and Method for Drive-Up Banking 5,222,445 Automatic Teller Machine Maintenance Enclosure
However, the prior art typically relies upon existing safe technology for securing the contents of an ATM such as a combination or key lock, both of which can be compromised relatively easily by an experienced thief having knowledge of the security techniques employed in safes. It should be noted that ATM safes are relatively small when compared with bank vaults which can have much greater security measures since vaults can be located in much more secure environments as they do not need to be located so as to provide easy access by customers.
Locks on such relatively small safes can be attacked in numerous different ways depending upon the specifics of the lock because at least some of the lock elements, by necessity, are exposed.